Chapter XLIV: Section 8: provided minute directions for the distribution of the tracts (32)

The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.

General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway Cabal.”

The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading, which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from the stormy political atmosphere of the city.

More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.

There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay social gatherings were held.

It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin, would only counsel with General Greene.

They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic of counselors.

In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.

The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates was the man who of right should have the station sustained by Washington.

A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.

The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that “Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this time familiar wherever officers congregated.

On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were miserable, indeed.”

These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.

It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to Washington.

Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.

Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress, then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.

At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said: “Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the commander-in-chief of the American armies.”

The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.

The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.

There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.

Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.

So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done their full duty.

Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform in his administration of the army.

Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept, and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the war.

The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without those in authority adding thereto.

The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as the most trying scenes of his life.

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Federal Party Is Broken Up in Closing Days

of November, 1823

It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of this continent.

The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.”

Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President, expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.

Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November, 1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic Party.

Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.

In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state, there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense enthusiasm among the people in his favor.

In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs. Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and impressive speech.

This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.

This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825. The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.

Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.

At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.

The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser importance.

In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.

Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa., and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries in Massachusetts in 1826.

In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most important railroad in America.

In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the Ohio.

The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his successor to wrestle with the problem.

On December 15, 1829, George Wolf, of Northampton County, was inaugurated as Governor of Pennsylvania. He had defeated Joseph Ritner, who attempted to seek this high office on the rising wave of the anti-Masonic era, which at this time changed the political horizon of the State and Nation.

Governor Wolf stepped into office at the time the financial affairs were in a deplorable condition. His only remedy was to push the public works to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he, with others, had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed improvements went toward developing the natural resources of Pennsylvania.

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Major George Washington Meets French
Commander Joncaire at Logstown,
November 30, 1753

The contention between Great Britain and France for the possession of what is now Western Pennsylvania began about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed October 18, 1748, while it nominally closed the war between those two countries, failed to establish the boundaries between their respective colonies in America, and this failure, together with the hostile and conflicting attitude of the colonists in America, was the cause of another long and bloody war.

An association was formed in Virginia about 1748, called the Ohio Company, which was given a royal grant. The object of the company, according to its charter, was to trade with the Indians, but its actual purpose was to settle the region about the forks of the Ohio, now Pittsburgh, with English colonists from Virginia and Maryland.

All the vast territory from the Mississippi to the Alleghany Mountains, south of the Great Lakes, had been explored and partly occupied by the French. They had forts, trading posts and missions at various points and they made every endeavor to conciliate the Indians. It was apparent they intended to extend their occupancy to the extreme tributaries of the Ohio, which they claimed by virtue of prior discovery.

So it was but natural when the English sought to gain a permanent occupancy of the Ohio Valley that the French should begin actively to assert their claims to the same region.

The Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, sent Captain Bienville de Celeron in 1749 down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to take possession in the name of the King of France. His command consisted of two hundred and fifteen French and Canadian soldiers and fifty-five Indians. The principal officers under him were Captain Contrecœur, who afterwards built Fort Duquesne, Coulon de Villiers, and Joncaire-Chabet.

They planted leaden plates, properly inscribed, at different points, beginning at the present town of Warren, and then along the Allegheny River, then along the Ohio, and up the Miami, and they reached Lake Erie, October 19, 1749.

The French affairs were actively pushed by Joncaire-Chabet, who occupied the house at the mouth of French Creek, or Venango, which had been built by John Frazer, a Pennsylvania trader, whom Celeron drove off when he found him there.

Early in January, 1753, a French expedition consisting of 300 men under command of Monsieur Babier set out from Quebec. Traveling over land and ice, they reached Fort Niagara in April, then pushed on to the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. In May Monsieur Morin arrived with an additional force of 500 men, and he assumed command.

It was intended to build a fort here, but the water was found to be too shallow and the expedition moved to a place which, from the peculiar formation of the lake shore, they named Presqu’ Isle, or the Peninsula. This is now the City of Erie.

Here the first fort was built and named Fort la Presqu’ Isle. It was constructed of square logs, was about 120 feet square and fifteen feet high. It was finished in June, 1753 and garrisoned by about 100 men under command of Captain Depontency.

The remainder of the forces cut a road southward about fifteen miles to Le Boeuf River, or French Creek. Here they built a second fort, which they called Fort Le Boeuf, similar to the first, but smaller. This is the site of the present Borough of Waterford, Erie County, Pa.

In 1752 a treaty had been entered into with the Indians which secured the right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by Captain Christopher Gist, established themselves on the Monongahela, and subsequently commenced the erection of a fort where the City of Pittsburgh now stands.

The activity of the French alarmed these settlers, and soon all their proceedings were reported to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. He determined to send an official communication to the commander of the French, who had established his headquarters at Fort Le Boeuf, protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered rights, granted by the Crown of Britain, pointing to the late treaties of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other.

George Washington, then only twenty-three years old, was selected for this mission by Governor Dinwiddie. He performed his duty with the greatest tact and to the satisfaction of his Government.

With a party of seven besides himself, among whom was Christopher Gist, he set out November 15, 1753, from Wills Creek, the site of Fort Cumberland, in Maryland, which was the limit of the road that had been opened by the Ohio Company.

The first place of importance was Logstown, where they arrived on November 30. This important Indian village was on the right bank of the Ohio River, about fourteen miles below the present Pittsburgh. It was at Logstown where the Treaty of 1752 was made. Here Washington enlisted the services of the chief Indians and proceeded on his mission.

Washington writes in his journal that they set out from Logstown for Venango about 9 o’clock in the morning, with Tanacharison, the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and arrived at Venango on December 4.

Soon as Captain Joncaire had finished his greetings wine was passed and after much drinking all restraint was banished, which gave license to their tongues and their true sentiments were revealed.

The French officers told young Washington that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, to which they had undoubted right from a discovery made by LaSalle sixty years since. They also told him they had raised an expedition to prevent the English from settling on the river.

Joncaire endeavored by every means to win the Half-King from the English, but the chief remained true to his mission, and accompanied Washington to Le Boeuf, to which place he was referred, as the commanding officer of the French had his headquarters there.

The party arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. Washington was received with courtesy by the commandant, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.

In regard to the message of Governor Dinwiddie, Saint-Pierre replied that he would forward it to the Governor-General of Canada, but that in the meantime, his orders were to hold possession of the country, and this he would do to the best of his ability.

With this answer Washington retraced his steps, enduring many hardships and passing through many perils, until he presented his report to the Governor at Williamsburg, Va., January 16, 1754.

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William Penn and Family Arrive in Province
on His Second Visit, December 1, 1699

Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell, was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July 25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his short and stormy term, which ended the following December.

Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties and made ordinances.

The President and Council of the Province immediately published a proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.

Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a Lieutenant Governor.

The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their Governor and three lower counties rejected him.

Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the consequences he predicted.

These dissensions served to furnish the Crown with a pretext to deprive Penn of his Province. William and Mary seized this opportunity to punish him for this attachment to the late King, and they commissioned Benjamin Fletcher, Governor General of New York, also to be the Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories. The Council of the Province was officially advised of his appointment April 19, 1693.

Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly, require its members to subscribe to the oaths and tests prescribed by acts of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having a vote upon their acts, etc. No mention was made of William Penn, nor of the Provincial constitution, yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the Government was surrendered to him without objection, but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions.

William Penn condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a letter to Colonel Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by many personal favors.

Trouble arose when Fletcher attempted a new form of election contrary to the laws of the Province, and the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal. The Assembly insisted that their rights should first be redressed.

Fletcher claimed the right to alter laws without even the assent of Assembly, and to strengthen his position threatened to annex the Province to New York. The moderate party, rather than submit to this, preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as a favor at the hands of the Governor.

Prior to his departure for New York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed William Markham, the Proprietary’s cousin, to be Lieutenant Governor. Governor Fletcher attended the second session of the Assembly and insisted upon further appropriations for public defense. The Assembly refused to comply with Fletcher’s demand and was dissolved.

The Proprietary was not wholly in accord with the resolute refusal of the Assembly, nor was he unmindful of the effects which such opposition to the wishes of the Crown might have upon his particular interests.

William Penn was now no longer under the cloud of suspicion. He had many friends among the nobles who surrounded the King, and his true character was at last made known.

He succeeded in obtaining a hearing before a Privy Council and was honorably acquitted and restored to his Proprietary rights by a patent dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province were ascribed solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, William Penn’s wife, Gulielma Maria, died.

Penn appointed Markham his Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and Territories September 24, 1694. The restoration of the former government was not happy, for Governor Fletcher had made himself unpopular, and it was not an easy matter for Markham to immediately gain their confidence, even though he had called the Assembly according to the forms prescribed by the charter.

The great bone of contention was the subsidy to be granted to the King. Finally a joint committee of the two branches of the Legislature was acceded to, when it was agreed to accept the new Constitution, and a new subsidy of £300 was granted for the support of the Royal Government and of the suffering Indians. This was raised by a tax of one penny on the pound on all assessed property.

The new Constitution was more democratic. The Council consisted of two from each county, elected biennially. The Assembly had four members from each county, elected annually. The latter was given the right to originate bills, to sit on its adjournments and to be indissoluble during the term for which it was elected.

This instrument was never formally sanctioned by the Proprietary and continued in force only until after his second arrival, when a new and more lasting one was substituted in its place. Under it the people were content.

William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from England in the ship Canterbury in September, 1699, and on account of adverse winds had a tedious voyage of more than three months, arriving in the Delaware, December 1, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being generally understood that he intended to spend the remainder of his life in the Province.

The Proprietary believed the time was ripe for an entirely new form of government and labored earnestly to obtain additional legislative restrictions upon intercourse with the Indians in order to protect them from the artifices of the whites. Penn conferred frequently with the several nations of the Province, visiting them familiarly in their forests, participating in their festivals and entertaining them with much hospitality and state at his mansion at Pennsbury.

He formed a new treaty with the tribes located on the Susquehanna and its tributaries and also with the Five Nations. This treaty was one of peace. In 1701, William Penn took a second trip into the interior of the Province.

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Morgan Powell Cruelly Murdered by Mollie
Maguires, December 2, 1871

The bloody record of the Mollie Maguires began about the time the Civil War was brought to a close and continued until James McParlan, the able detective in the employ of the Pinkerton agency, ferreted out these criminals and brought the guilty to trials which resulted in their execution or long terms of imprisonment.

The anthracite coal regions were not free of this scourge until 1877.

The Mollies were unusually active and bloodthirsty in 1865. August 25 of that year, David Muir, colliery superintendent, was killed in Foster Township, shot to death on the public highway, in broad daylight, within two hundred yards of the office in which he was employed.

January 10, 1866, Henry H. Dunne, of Pottsville, superintendent of a colliery, was murdered on the turnpike, while riding to his home in his carriage.

October 17, 1868, occurred the tragic death of Alexander Rae, near Centralia, Columbia County.

The next important outrage of this character was the murder of William H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen Carbon Coal Mining Company, March 15, 1869. He was killed on the highway in Cass Township, Schuylkill County, while enroute to his home in Pottsville.

Then occurred the murders of F. W. S. Langdon, George K. Smith and Graham Powell, each of whom was a mining official.

But the crowning act of the Mollie Maguires, up to the time James McParlan was engaged by Mr. Allen Pinkerton to investigate the workings of this nefarious organization, and the one reaching the culmination of many previous and similar events, was the murder of Morgan Powell.

This event exasperated the good people of the anthracite region to the pitch where endurance ceases to be a virtue, and where only desperate methods to put a stop to these crimes can be put in operation.

This unprovoked murder occurred December 2, 1871. Morgan Powell was assistant superintendent of the Lehigh and Wilkes Barre Coal and Iron Company, at Summit Hill, Carbon County.

The murder was committed about seven o’clock in the evening, on the main street of the little town, not more than twenty feet from the store of Henry Williamson, which place Powell had but a few minutes earlier left to go to the office of Mr. Zehner, the general superintendent of the company.

It seems that one of three men, who had been seen by different parties waiting near the store, approached Mr. Powell from the rear, close beside a gate leading into the stables, and fired a pistol shot into the left breast of the victim. The assassin reached over the shoulder of Powell to accomplish his deadly purpose.

The bullet passed through Powell’s body, lodged in the back near the spinal column, producing immediate paralysis of the lower limbs, and resulting in death two days afterward.

The wounded man was carried back to the store by some of his friends and his son, Charles Powell, the latter then but fourteen years of age, and there remained all night. The next day he was removed to the residence of Morgan Price, where he died the following day.

Hardly had the smoke from the murderer’s pistol mingled with the clear air of that star-lit winter evening, when the assassins were discovered rapidly making their way from the scene of their savage deed toward the top of Plant No. 1.

They were met by the Reverend Allan John Morton and Lewis Richards, who were hurrying to the spot to learn what had caused the firing.

Mr. Morton asked, as they halted on the rigging-stand, what was the trouble, when one of the three strangers answered: “I guess a man has been shot!”

Descriptions of the three men were remembered by the Reverend Morgan and Mr. Richards, and the trio started forward in the direction in which Mr. Powell had pointed when asked which way the attacking party had gone.

“I'm shot to death! My lower limbs have no feeling in them!” exclaimed Mr. Powell, when Williamson first raised his head.

No one could tell who shot him. The three suspects were strangers.

Patrick Kildea, who was thought to resemble one of them, was arrested and tried, but finally acquitted, from lack of evidence to convict. This, for the time, was the end of the matter.

When McParlan, disguised as James McKenna, was working on the case of the murder of B. F. Yost, of Tamaqua, in 1875, he learned first-handed from John Donahue, alias “Yellow Jack,” that he was the murderer of Morgan Powell.

Donahue related the circumstances to his “friend” and named his two confederates. He bragged of the affair as being a clean job.

He said the escape was easy, as they did not go ten yards from the spot where Powell dropped, until the excitement cooled down, when, in the darkness, they quietly departed from the bushes, and reached their homes in safety.

The detective made mental notes of this disclosure, and his report subsequently transmitted to his superiors was the first light upon this crime, which had, for four years baffled the best efforts of the officers of justice.

The time was not ripe to press Donahue for more details, but as the detective was supposed to have recently assisted in a murder, Donahue talked freely with him about others who were soon to be victims of the Mollies.

In the fall of 1876, when the arrests of the Mollies were made, John Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, Patrick McKenna, Alexander Campbell, Patrick O'Donnell, and John Malloy were taken in Carbon County, charged with the murder of Morgan Powell, at Summit Hill, December 2, 1871.

The defendants were tried at different terms of the Carbon County Court, at Mauch Chunk. James McParlan, the detective, now in his true character, frequently appeared as a witness and testified to the confessions of the Mollies.

They were found guilty as follows: Donahue of murder in the first degree, Fisher of murder in the first degree, McKenna of murder in the first degree, and O'Donnell as an accessory. McKenna served nine years and O'Donnell five years’ imprisonment.

Thus was the death of Morgan Powell avenged.

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General Anthony Wayne Defeats Indians;
Congress Ratifies Treaty, December
3, 1795

Congress ratified the treaty made at Greenville by General Anthony Wayne, December 3, 1795. This is one of the few such treaties the provisions of which were respected.

Anthony Wayne was a member of the convention which met in Philadelphia and adopted a paper, drawn by John Dickinson, which recommended the Assembly to appoint delegates to a Congress of the Colonies. He was one of four members of that committee who became distinguished generals in the Revolution. His father had been an officer in the French and Indian War and Anthony studied surveying, but his attention was more centered on things military.

At the age of twenty he managed an expedition sent to Nova Scotia in the interest of Great Britain. On the very day that the battle of Lexington was fought he was made a member of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety.

He was made a colonel of one of the first regiments raised by Pennsylvania and soon was engaged in the perilous Canadian campaign.

Wayne then was given command of Fort Ticonderoga, which Ethan Allen had captured “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” During this tour of duty he was made a brigadier general and begged General Washington for more active service.

He was called to general headquarters at Morristown and given command of eight Pennsylvania regiments. These he taught to fight.

General Wayne fought bravely at Brandywine, and after Howe captured Philadelphia Washington posted him to watch the British and annoy them while the main army was being put in better condition to meet the enemy.

Through the betrayal of his position by a Tory, Wayne’s command was surprised at Paoli, when more than sixty of his soldiers were stabbed to death by the British bayonets. It was due to no fault of General Wayne and he managed to march away most of his men in good order.

Two weeks later the Battle of Germantown was fought and Wayne’s troops had a chance to make a bayonet attack upon the same soldiers who had rushed into their camp at Paoli. “They took ample vengeance for that night’s work,” said Wayne. He was delighted to see his Pennsylvanians beat the British at their own style of fighting.

Wayne’s troops suffered through the long winter following at Valley Forge, and none worked harder to relieve their distress than did the popular general.

Washington dispatched Wayne on a foraging expedition through New Jersey for much-needed supplies, and in spite of several skirmishes with British troops on the same mission Wayne brought back the supplies.

When Howe evacuated Philadelphia and Washington followed him across New Jersey, it was Wayne who encouraged Washington to fight the enemy. The Battle of Monmouth resulted, and it was Wayne’s line which held back the British until Washington could move up the rest of his army.

In Washington’s report to Congress about this battle he mentioned only one general by name, General Anthony Wayne.

Wayne’s most daring exploit was the capture of Stony Point, on the Hudson. This was accomplished by 1300 men in a bayonet attack at night. Wayne was wounded and afterward was spoken of by envious officers as “Mad Anthony.”

He performed conspicuous service at Yorktown, and was afterward sent to Georgia, where he fought Indians as well as British. The State of Georgia gave Wayne a rice plantation in token of gratitude.

After Washington resigned the active command of the army, General Josiah Harmar, one of a family living along the Perkiomen, succeeded him. Harmar led an expedition against the Miami Indians in the Northwest in 1790, but was defeated.

General Arthur St. Clair, who had been a major general of the Pennsylvania Line and President of the Continental Congress, succeeded Harmar. St. Clair at the time was also Governor of the Northwestern Territory. He, too, suffered a humiliating defeat in a serious engagement November 4, 1791, by the Miami, led by their chiefs and aided by Simon Girty, the notorious Tory and renegade, another Pennsylvanian.

After his reverse Washington appointed Anthony Wayne a major general and put him in command of the Army of the United States. The Indians were aided by the British.

Within seven years they had killed 1500 people, and their object was to prevent the settlements beyond the Ohio River.

General Wayne organized an army of 2631 men at Pittsburgh. A large proportion of the soldiers were Pennsylvanians.

The war lasted more than two years. Wayne moved his army down the Ohio, thence to the site of Cincinnati, to the Miami River, 400 miles into the wilderness.

On August 20, 1794, at the Fallen Timbers he encountered a force of 2000 Indians and won the most important victory ever secured over the Indian foes. Almost all the dead warriors were found with British arms.

Wayne laid waste their country and by the middle of September moved up to the junction of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s Rivers, near the present City of Fort Wayne, Ind., and built a strong fortification, which he named Fort Wayne. The little army wintered at Greenville, O. The barbarians realized their weakness and sued for peace.

Wayne returned to Philadelphia to report his operations. As he approached the city the cavalry troops met him as a guard of honor. When he crossed the ferry over the Schuylkill a salute of fifteen guns was fired, and the bells of the city pealed their acclaim. The people crowded the sidewalks to catch a glimpse of the victorious general. Congress voted him its thanks.

The following summer 1130 sachems and warriors, representing twelve tribes or nations, met at Greenville on August 3 and concluded a treaty the basis of which was that hostilities should permanently cease and all prisoners be restored. The boundary line between the United States and the lands of the several tribes was fixed. It made possible the settlement of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and the West.

When this treaty was successfully concluded Wayne embarked in a schooner at Detroit for his home in Chester County. He was taken ill with his old complaint, the gout, and landed at Presqu’ Isle in great physical distress. Before an army surgeon could reach him he died in the Block-House there, December 15, 1796.

Bury me at the foot of the flagstaff, boys,” he ordered, and his command was obeyed. Thirteen years later his son, Colonel Isaac Wayne, removed his remains to Radnor churchyard, in Delaware County, over which the Pennsylvania State Society of Cincinnati erected an elegant white marble monument.

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Anti-Masonic Period Terminates in Trouble on December 4, 1838

In the campaign of 1838 Governor Joseph Ritner was renominated by the Fusionist Whig-Anti-Masonic-Abolitionist Party for the office of Governor, and David R. Porter, of Huntingdon, was the nominee of the Democratic organization for the same office.

The campaign was one of vituperation and personal abuse of the candidates unparalleled in the history of politics.

When the news of the election became known it showed that Porter had been elected by a majority of 5540 votes.

Immediately thereafter Secretary of the Commonwealth Thomas H. Burrowes, who was also chairman of the Anti-Masonic State Committee, issued a circular to the “Friends of Governor Ritner,” calling upon them to “treat the election held on October 9 as if it had never taken place.” This circular had the desired effect and the defeated Anti-Masonic and weak candidates for the Legislature contested the seats of their successful Democratic competitors on the slightest pretext.

Thaddeus Stevens said at a public meeting in the Courthouse at Gettysburg that “the Anti-Masons would organize the House, and if Governor Porter were declared elected the Legislature would elect Canal Commissioners for three years and then adjourn before date fixed by the new Constitution for the inauguration, and that Porter would never be Governor.”

As the time approached for the meeting of the Legislature on December 4, trouble was anticipated and “Committees on Safety” were appointed in nearly all of the counties, while many persons, especially from the districts in which contests were expected, flocked to Harrisburg to witness the result of the struggle.

It may not be generally known, but there had been a secret meeting composed of Burrowes, Stevens and Fenn, none of whom was born in Pennsylvania, at which were suggested some strong revolutionary measures.

After the excitement was over the Legislature settled down to business, and Governor Porter having been inaugurated, it was seriously considered whether these men should not be tried for treason.

The House then consisted of 100 members, eight of whom were from Philadelphia, whose seats were contested, and of the remaining number forty-eight were Democrats and forty-four anti-Masonic Whigs. The majority of the Senate belonged to the latter party, and consequently promptly organized by the election of Charles B. Penrose as Speaker.

In the House the clerk read the names of the members as given him by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Upon reading the returns from Philadelphia County it was discovered that the legal returns had been withheld and fraudulent ones substituted. This had been anticipated, as the Secretary of the Commonwealth had determined to seat the minority members, thus compelling the majority to be contestants and to witness the organization of the House. The Democrats produced and read the true returns, as duly certified by the Prothonotary of Philadelphia. This seated both sets of contesting delegates and caused the wildest excitement.

At this moment Thaddeus Stevens moved that the House proceed to the election of the Speaker. The clerk then called the roll of the Whig and Anti-Masonic members and declared Thomas S. Cunningham, of Beaver County, elected. He was conducted to the Speaker’s chair and took his seat.

The Democrats paid very little attention to the movements of the opposition and elected William Hopkins, of Washington County, Speaker. Two members escorted Mr. Hopkins to the platform, where Mr. Cunningham had already been seated.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives thus enjoyed a double-headed organization. The members of the House of each party were then sworn in by their respective officers—fifty-two members who had elected Mr. Cunningham and fifty-six members who elected Mr. Hopkins.

After some necessary routine the Governor and the Senate were informed the House was ready to proceed to business; then both bodies adjourned their respective organizations to meet next day at 10 o’clock.

The Cunningham party did not wait until its appointed time. In the afternoon they met again in the hall, and after being called to order by their Speaker, he called Mr. Spackman, of Philadelphia, to act as Speaker pro tem. Some Philadelphians who were in the lobby as spectators, feeling indignant at the proceedings of the Cunningham party, went up to the platform and carried Spackman off and sat him down in the aisle.

This interference from outsiders could not be resented by the rump House and it immediately adjourned amid great confusion. They afterwards met in Matthew Wilson’s Hall, until recently known as the Lochiel Hotel. During these exciting scenes large crowds gathered outside the Capitol and became boisterous. The aspect of affairs appeared alarming.

While the foregoing incidents were transpiring in the House, there were contests for seats in the Senate from several districts. Upon the floor were members of the House, among them Thaddeus Stevens and Secretary of the Commonwealth Burrowes, of Lancaster, who had gone there with minority returns. These two individuals, who controlled the Executive, were of the opinion that the first returns received were to have precedence.

A large crowd in the rear of the Senate Chamber was composed of excited and enraged citizens, especially toward those who were working to seat Hanna and Wagner, of Philadelphia, in place of those legally entitled to the seats. Threats of violence were heard.

The clerk had opened and read the returns, as far as Philadelphia. When those were reached, Charles Brown, who had been elected on the majority return, arose and presented to the Speaker what he said was a copy of the true return, alleging the other false. The Speaker attempted to stop him, but the crowd insisted that Brown be heard. Brown was allowed to proceed, and during his remarks the crowds in the lobby and gallery shouted, threatening violence to Penrose, Burrowes and Stevens.

The scene was now one of fearful confusion, disorder and terror, and at last Speaker Penrose, unable to stem the current any longer, abandoned his post, and with Stevens and Burrowes escaped through a window in the rear of the Senate Chamber. The Senate adjourned until next day.

On the night of the first day of the session a large public meeting was held in the Courthouse over which General Thomas Craig Miller, of Adams County, presided.

The Governor then issued a proclamation which stated that “a lawless, infuriated, armed mob, from the counties of Philadelphia, Lancaster, Adams and other places, have assembled at the seat of government with the avowed object of disturbing, interrupting and overawing the Legislature of this Commonwealth and of preventing its proper organization and the peaceful and free discharge of its duties. This mob had entered the Senate Chamber and threatened the lives of the members and it still remained in the city in force, etc.”

The Governor called upon the civil authorities, the military force of the Commonwealth and the citizens to hold themselves in readiness for instant duty.

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Troops Called Out in “Buck Shot War” on
December 5, 1838

Amid all the excitement of the first day of the “Buckshot” War, December 4, 1837, at the moment Governor Joseph Ritner had issued his proclamation calling upon the people to disperse the lawless element and to add further excitement, the State Arsenal was seized by friends of the Governor, where large quantities of powder and cartridges were stored. The proclamation and call for troops and the seizure of the arsenal filled the city of Harrisburg with intense alarm.

William Cochran, Sheriff of Dauphin County, issued a proclamation in which he stated that at no time had there been any riotous proceedings, nor any disturbances which rendered necessary his interposition as a civil officer to preserve peace.

The following day, December 5, the Governor made a requisition on Major General Robert Patterson, commanding the First Division Pennsylvania Militia to furnish sufficient of his command to “quell this insurrection.”

General Patterson obtained from the Frankford Arsenal a supply of the regular ammunition for infantry, which was then buckshot. About a hundred of General Patterson’s command arrived in Harrisburg, on Saturday night, December 8, and the next afternoon 800 troops arrived. They were paraded through the streets to the public grounds in front of the State Arsenal.

The general and his staff reported to the Governor. The door was locked and barred, and the general could not gain admittance until the Governor learned from a second-story window who was seeking an entrance.

The Governor sent for his Cabinet, and five responded. They asked the General many questions, among others, if he would obey an order of the Speaker of the Senate, to which he replied in the negative. He said he had not come on a political mission, and anyway, would not sustain a party clearly in the wrong.

He was asked if he would obey an order from the Speaker of the House. He replied he would not, for two reasons: They had two Speakers, he did not know the right one, and he would not obey the regular Speaker anyway, as he had no right to give him an order. He said he would obey only the Governor, and then only when the Governor gave him an order he had a right to give.

General Patterson refused to help seat either Speaker. He said the House alone could do that. If ordered to fire, he would refuse to issue the order. Nor would he permit a single shot to be fired except in self-defense, if assailed by the rebels, or in the protection of public property. The conference ended abruptly.

The Governor had called upon Captain Sumner, then in command of the Carlisle Barracks, for troops, but he refused to send them to interfere in political troubles.

Governor Ritner also wrote to President Van Buren, laying before him a full account of the affair, requesting the President to take such measures as would protect the State against violence. The Governor named several Government officials who were active in the trouble.

The Governor’s party finding they could not get General Patterson to install them in power, his troops were ordered home and a requisition was made upon Major General Alexander, of the Eleventh Division of State Militia, a citizen of Carlisle, and an ultra-Whig in politics.

Out of three companies only sixty-seven men responded. The battalion, under the command of Colonel Willis Foulk, marched from Carlisle to Harrisburg, December 15, arriving on the following day.

There never had been occasion for soldiers and now as the Carlisle troops arrived the disturbance in the Legislature was nearing an end. The soldiers regarded the trip as a frolic.

On December 17 Messrs. Butler and Sturdevant, of Luzerne, and Montelius, of Union County, three legally elected Whig members, abandoned their Anti-Masonic associates and were sworn in as members of the “Hopkins House,” which gave it a legal quorum over and above the eight Democrats from Philadelphia whose rights the “Rump House” disputed.

Finally on December 27, Mr. Michler, of Northampton County, submitted a resolution which recognized that the House was now legally organized, and it was adopted, by the close vote of seventeen yeas to sixteen nays.

The committee called for in the resolution was named and waited on the Governor, informing him the Legislature was organized.

With this reconciliation the returns were opened and read; the amendment to the Constitution was declared carried and the election of David R. Porter as Governor of the Commonwealth promulgated. However, the animosity still existed, and resulted in the appointment by both Houses of select committees to inquire into the causes of the disturbances and other matters.

Mr. Stevens, the ring leader, refused at first to be reconciled, and absented himself several months from the sessions of the House. It was not until May 8 that his colleague in the House announced that Mr. Stevens was now in his seat and ready to take the requisite qualifications.

Objection was made, and a resolution offered declaring that Mr. Stevens had “forfeited that right by act in violation of the laws of the land, by contempt to the House, and by the virtual resignation of his character as a representative.” Action was postponed.

On the following day Mr. Stevens again appeared, and, through his colleague, demanded that the oath be administered. This was on motion postponed by a vote of forty-eight to thirty. Two days afterward Mr. Stevens appeared a third time, but by a vote of fifty-three to thirty-three the question was postponed, and a committee appointed to examine whether he had not forfeited his right to a seat as a member.

On the 20th this committee reported that he was “not entitled” to his seat.

The House, however, by declaring his seat vacant, caused an election, when Mr. Stevens was again returned and appearing, was duly qualified.

Mr. Penrose, the Speaker of the Senate, issued a manifesto “To the People of the State,” explaining his participation in the proceedings of December 4.

Subsequently a number of pamphlets appeared, chiefly of the facetious class, which attempted to make a farce of what might have resulted in a very serious affair. One of these severely criticized Secretary Burrowes for withholding the correct and legal returns; Speaker Penrose for the violation of his duty; the six Senators who were denounced as traitors and the last paragraph was:

“Finally, if the leaders of the party who claimed to be ‘all the decency,’ and were the first to cry out mob, had behaved themselves honorably and honestly there would have been no ‘Buckshot War,’ and perhaps they would not have so soon been compelled to witness the 'Last Kick of Anti-Masonry.'”

The piper was now to pay and it took many years to heal the political sores. The Anti-Masonic crusade had come to an end, and from that date Masonry and Odd Fellowship, those “twin sisters of iniquity,” as Thaddeus Stevens designated them, thrived more than ever. The term “Buckshot War,” was a thorn in the side of its leaders.

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De Vries Finds Entire Dutch Colony Destroyed,
December 6, 1632

The Dutch were the first Europeans to pursue explorations in the New World, and as early as 1609, sent Henry Hudson on an expedition to America, where he arrived at the head of Delaware Bay, August 28 of that year. Hudson later sailed up the New Jersey Coast and anchored off Sandy Hook, September 3; nine days later entered New York Bay through the Narrows, and entered the great river that since has borne his name.

The Dutch East India Company received glowing reports from its navigator and immediately set in motion other expeditions to the New Netherlands.

Before 1614 a fleet of five vessels, under command of Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, arrived in Delaware Bay, and two years later Cornelius Hendrickson sailed up the Delaware and discovered the mouth of the Schuylkill, the present site of Philadelphia.

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was chartered and in 1623 Captain Mey built Fort Nassau about five miles above Wilmington, Del., on the eastern shore. Another settlement of a few families was made farther north upon the same side of the river, but in 1631 no white man had made a settlement on the west bank of the Delaware River.

In that year there came to the southern cape, now Henlopen, a party of colonists from Holland, under David Pieterson De Vries, of Hoorn, “a bold and skillful seaman,” and the finest personage in the settlement of America.